Instrukcja obsługi / User manual

English user manual

1. What the program is
2. Program activation
3. First start
4. The file index
5. Searching for files
6. Content search and duplicates
7. What to do with results
8. What eats the disk
9. NETWORK tab — basics
10. File server
11. Network tools
12. TOOLS tab
13. System tools
14. POWER tab
15. Button summary
16. Troubleshooting

1. What the program is

HPL Tool Ultimate is a single .exe file for Windows that brings together, in one window, the things you would normally open several separate programs for: fast file search across the whole disk, network tools, a file server for the home network, small everyday utilities and scheduled shutdown.

The program needs no installation. It does not appear in the Start menu, creates no uninstall entries and scatters no files around the system. Everything it needs — the icon, the logo and the network-card vendor database — sits inside the .exe file.

Four tabs

What the program does not do

• It does not search the cloud or network drives of other computers — it works on disks visible in the system.
• It is not an antivirus and not a data recovery tool.
• It does not send your files anywhere. The only internet connections it makes are: checking the public IP address (MY DATA), resolving the country of remote connections (an option you switch on yourself) and talking to the router when sharing through UPnP.

2. Program activation

The program needs a one-off activation on the computer it was started on. On the first start, instead of the main window, an activation window appears — in English, regardless of the system language.

The activation code is about 340 characters long and is a signature bound to one computer. Passed on to somebody else it will not work. Activation itself contacts no server — the codes travel by e-mail, so the program needs no internet connection for it.

• COMPUTER ID in the form HPL-XXXX-XXXX-XXXX is the short identifier of the computer. It is worth including it in your message next to the request code — it makes the request easier to recognise.
• Activation happens once. On later starts the program goes straight to the main window.
• The licence lives in the system, not next to the .exe file. Moving the program to another folder or another disk of the same computer does not clear the activation.
• Replacing the motherboard or the network card changes the computer identifier — a new code is then needed.

3. First start

After activation the program opens the main window on the SEARCH tab. The window has a fixed layout: a top bar, four tabs and a status bar at the bottom.

The top bar

• The privileges marker. The words NOT ADMINISTRATOR and the RESTART AS ADMIN button appear only when the program runs without elevated rights. Clicking restarts it, with the system asking for consent. Once running as administrator, that bar is gone.
• The clock in the middle counts down to a scheduled shutdown. With nothing scheduled it sits at 00:00:00.
• The PL / EN switch in the right corner changes the language of the whole window at once, with no restart. After start the program is always in Polish.

The PIN

Some functions are protected by a four-digit PIN. The default PIN is 0000 — it is worth changing it on the first run with the CHANGE PIN button in the TOOLS tab.

Where the program keeps its data

All working files are created in the same folder that holds HPL Tool Ultimate.exe. The program is portable: copying the whole folder to another disk or a USB stick takes the index, notes and settings along.

4. The file index

Searching by name, size, date and extension works on an index — a list of files made once, in advance. That is why results appear instantly instead of combing through the disk on every question.

Building the index

1. Choose the scope in the “Drives” field. All drives takes every fixed disk. You can also pick a single drive or — with SELECT FOLDER — one particular directory.
2. Click BUILD INDEX. The status bar shows how many files have been counted. Indexing a whole system disk usually takes a few minutes and produces an index.json of a few dozen megabytes.
3. Afterwards REFRESH INDEX is enough. Refreshing adds the changes instead of rebuilding the list, so it is much quicker. With no index yet, the program says plainly: Nothing to refresh — build the index first.

The date of the last indexing sits on the status bar — today, yesterday or an actual date. With no index at all, the bar shows no index.

Exclusions

The EXCLUSIONS button opens the list of folders skipped while indexing. By default these are places where you would not look for your own files anyway: Windows system folders, temporary files, browser caches and update folders. Skipping them shortens indexing and shrinks the index file.

• Skip the listed folders (recommended) — clearing this box indexes everything, system folders included.
• SAVE stores the list in index_cfg.json, DEFAULTS restores the factory set.

5. Searching for files

The upper part of the SEARCH tab is four columns of criteria, each with its own button. The criteria can be used separately or combined.

The header of the result list says which criterion filled it: RESULTS — SIZE, RESULTS — DATE, RESULTS — EXTENSION, RESULTS — COMBINED or RESULTS — COMBINED + CONTENT. Each file is listed with its size and modification date.

Examples

• Find every film larger than half a gigabyte. Extension mkv, size 500, the COMBINED SEARCH button.
• What changed this week. The date the week started, This date and newer ticked, the SEARCH BY DATE button.
• Where did that invoice go. Name invoice, extension pdf, COMBINED SEARCH.
• The biggest files on the disk. Size 1000 and FILTER BY SIZE — or go straight to WHAT EATS THE DISK from chapter 8.

6. Content search and duplicates

Searching in content

Type the phrase into the In content field, point at a folder with SELECT FOLDER and click SEARCH IN CONTENT. The program walks through the files in that folder and its subfolders and shows every hit together with the line number and the beginning of that line.

Duplicates

The FILE DUPLICATES button goes through the whole index and groups files that share the same name and the same size. The window shows the groups sorted from the largest files down, one group per section, with the path of every copy.

• SELECT COPIES ticks everything in each group except the first file — that is, what can be deleted while one copy stays.
• DELETE TO RECYCLE BIN moves the ticked files to the Recycle Bin, so a mistake can be undone.
• With more than 200 groups, the window shows the 200 largest and says so in the header.

7. What to do with results

The result list is not just for looking at. A single click selects, a double click opens the file, and the right mouse button opens a menu of operations.

Batch rename

The RENAME FILES button opens a window in which one rule renames every file in the chosen folder.

• Replace / with — swaps a fragment of the name. IMG_ to Holiday_ turns IMG_0041.jpg into Holiday_0041.jpg.
• Prefix and Suffix — add text at the beginning or the end of the name, before the extension.
• Number (001, 002…) — appends a running number, in the order the list is displayed.

The PREVIEW — OLD → NEW box shows the result of the rule before it runs. Only APPLY actually renames anything. When a rule changes nothing, the program says No changes to apply and leaves the files alone.

The operation log and UNDO

The LOG button in the TOOLS tab opens the record of everything the program did to files: copying, moving, deleting to the Recycle Bin and renaming. Every entry has a date, a kind and the number of files.

• UNDO reverses the selected operation — restores names, removes copies, brings a move back. The reversed entry stays on the list marked undone.
• Kind narrows the list down to one type of operation.
• EXPORT TXT saves the log to a file, REFRESH reloads it from the disk, CLEAR deletes the whole history after a confirmation.

8. What eats the disk

The WHAT EATS THE DISK button computes usage from the index rather than by walking the disk again — which is why the report appears within seconds. The window has three tabs.

OPEN IN EXPLORER opens the selected folder or file, and COPY VIEW puts the whole visible list into the clipboard — handy when you want to send somebody the summary. The list can also be narrowed to a single drive.

Empty folders and 0-byte files

The EMPTY / 0 B button opens a separate window that searches the folder you point at (the BROWSE button, then SCAN) and shows two lists: 0-BYTE FILES and EMPTY FOLDERS.

• SELECT ALL ticks both lists at once.
• DELETE TO RECYCLE BIN removes the ticked entries — here too, everything goes to the Recycle Bin.
• The scan can be stopped midway; the program then finishes with Cancelled and keeps whatever it found.

9. NETWORK tab — basics

The top bar of the NETWORK tab selects the network card that every operation applies to: ping, DNS, MAC change, traffic monitor and enabling the network. The program fills the list with the cards visible in the system — usually Ethernet and Wi-Fi.

MY DATA

One button that answers the question “how am I actually connected”. The window gathers in one place what normally takes three different parts of the system:

COPY ALL puts the whole report into the clipboard — handy when somebody asks for your connection details.

Ping

Type an address or a name into the Ping field and click START PING. The program pings continuously and shows the replies as they come; STOP PING stops it. This is a tool for watching a line over time — it makes dropping Wi-Fi and brief congestion visible.

DNS

The DNS list holds ready-made sets of name servers: Automatic (DHCP), Google, Cloudflare, Quad9, OpenDNS and AdGuard. Pick one and click SET DNS ADMIN PIN.

• Automatic (DHCP) leaves the decision to the router — the Windows factory setting.
• DNS TEST checks which server answers fastest from your line. The table shows the average, best and worst time and the number of errors. APPLY WINNER sets the fastest one straight away, and COPY RESULTS puts the table into the clipboard.

DISABLE NETWORK / ENABLE NETWORK

ADMIN PIN Switches the selected network card off and on — the equivalent of unplugging the cable by hand. Useful when the computer has to be cut off for a moment, or when the card needs to fetch a fresh address.

10. File server

The SERVER button opens a window that turns the computer into a simple file server. A TV, a phone or a second computer on the same network opens the address given and downloads or plays the file — with no USB stick, no cloud and nothing to install on the other side.

How to run it

Addresses — which file is where

This is the most common question when sharing several files at once. The rule is simple: the number on the list is the number in the address.

A separate port for one file

Sometimes the other side cannot append a number or a name and expects the whole address to be one particular file. That is what a port assigned to a list entry is for: type a port number next to a file and the program runs a separate server for it in which every address returns that one file.

• The port must be between 1024 and 65535.
• One port serves one file — the program will not let the same port be used twice and says This port is already assigned to another file.
• COPY PORT URL copies the finished address in the form http://192.168.1.50:8890/.

This is how two different files get two different addresses: http://192.168.1.50:8890/ and http://192.168.1.50:8891/ — each returns its own file, whatever the client appends.

Password, UPnP and receiving files

• Require a password — switches on a login. Type a USER and a PASSWORD or click GENERATE and let the program invent them. SHOW reveals the password, COPY URL WITH LOGIN gives a ready link with the credentials inside.
• Allow uploading files to this PC — adds an /upload page through which a phone or another computer sends a file to you. The RECEIVE FOLDER button says where those files should land.
• Share on the internet (UPnP) — asks the router to let the port through from outside. The program then shows Talking to the router… and, if the conversation succeeds, gives the public address and can display it as a QR code.

11. Network tools

NETWORK SCANNER

Goes through the whole home network and shows what is switched on in it: the IP address, the device name and the vendor of the network card recognised from the MAC address. Names come from DNS and NetBIOS, so a TV or a printer usually announces itself.

Recognised devices are saved in ipinfo.json, so the next scan comes back already labelled. The +WOL and PORTS buttons on a row move the device to Wake on LAN or scan its ports straight away.

CONNECTIONS

Shows what is sending data out of this computer and where: the local address, the remote address, the connection state and the process that opened it.

• Find process narrows the list down to one program name.
• External only hides traffic inside the computer and the local network, leaving what goes out into the world.
• ESTABLISHED only keeps the connections actually in place, without listening ports.
• Check country online adds the country and the organisation owning the address. It is the only option in this window that reaches the internet by itself — it is off by default.
• BLOCK IN FIREWALL ADMIN creates a firewall rule blocking the chosen program.

PORT SCANNER

Checks which ports are open on the given address. You can choose common ports or a custom range in the form 80,443,8000-8100. For open ports the program tries to identify the service and shows its first reply, so you see not just “port 22 is open” but what stands behind it. A single scan is limited to 8000 ports, and STOP halts the work at any moment.

ROUTE (TRACEROUTE)

Shows the successive hops packets take to the given address, with their times. It makes clear whether a slowdown is at your end, at the provider's, or somewhere further down the road.

WHY IS THERE NO INTERNET?

A diagnostic that walks the connection leg by leg — the network card, the IP address, the router, DNS, the way out — and states at each stage whether it is all right. Instead of guessing you get a straight answer about the step it stopped at. COPY REPORT puts the result into the clipboard — ready to send to support.

TRAFFIC MONITOR

Shows the current download and upload speed for the selected card, the total since the window was opened, and a chart of the last 60 seconds. It answers the question “is something in the background eating the line”.

WAKE ON LAN

Wakes computers on the local network with a magic packet. A device is added once — Name, MAC and IP, the ADD button — and from then on WAKE is enough. The list is saved in wol.json, so it survives closing the program.

WI-FI

The window shows three things at once: the state of your own connection (SSID, signal, channel and band, rate, security), channel load as a chart, and a list of nearby networks.

Below the chart the program names the best free channel in the 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz bands — a ready answer for what to set in the router when Wi-Fi slows down at peak hours. SCAN AREA refreshes the list, COPY LIST puts it into the clipboard.

CHANGE MAC

ADMIN Changes the MAC address of the selected network card. RANDOM generates a random private address, CHANGE MAC applies it and restarts the card, and RESTORE ORIGINAL goes back to the hardware address.

12. TOOLS tab

A collection of small utilities you would normally reach for separate programs for. Each button opens its own window — several can be open at once.

SCREENSHOT

Takes a shot of the whole screen and saves it into the program folder. Two settings next to the button change how it works:

• Delay (s) — from 0 to 60 seconds. Time to open the menu or window that should be in the shot.
• hide program window — HPL Tool Ultimate hides itself for the duration of the shot so it does not cover what you want to capture.
• OPEN LAST — opens the most recent screenshot. With none taken yet, it opens the program folder.

CLIPBOARD (HISTORY)

The program remembers what you copied and lets you go back to earlier entries — after a restart as well, because the history sits in clipboard.json.

• COPY next to an entry puts it back into the clipboard.
• Pinning an entry protects it from being cleared — useful for addresses, numbers and texts you use all the time.
• CLEAR HISTORY (KEEP PINNED) deletes everything except the pinned entries.

QUICK NOTES

A single text box that saves itself. While you type the program shows typing…, and after saving — loaded. The content lives in notes.txt next to the program, so it can be read and edited with an ordinary text editor. INSERT DATE adds the current date and time — handy when keeping a work journal.

PASSWORD GENERATOR

Generates several passwords at once. The LENGTH slider sets the number of characters, and the skip look-alike characters option removes zeros and the letter O, ones and both lower-case l and capital I, along with other characters easily confused when copied by hand. Clicking a result copies it to the clipboard — a COPIED confirmation then appears under the list.

KEEP AWAKE

Blocks the computer from sleeping and the screen from blanking — for the duration of a long copy, render or download. Once on, the button turns violet and reads KEEP AWAKE — ACTIVE. Clicking again releases the block and hands control back to the Windows settings.

CLEAN TEMP

PIN Deletes temporary files from %TEMP% and C:\Windows\Temp and empties the Recycle Bin. The program asks for confirmation and names those three places, and when it is done reports how many files it removed and how much space it freed. Files held open by running programs are skipped — that is normal and not an error.

CHANGE PIN

Asks for the old PIN, then for the new one. The new one is stored as a hash in pin.dat. Deleting that file restores the factory PIN 0000 — worth remembering when the PIN slips your mind.

13. System tools

SYSTEM REPORT

Gathers a full set of service data into one window: processor, memory, motherboard and BIOS, the system and its version, network cards, and a list of disks with their size and free space. COPY REPORT puts the lot into the clipboard.

STARTUP MANAGER

Shows the programs launched together with Windows and lets you switch them off. Disabled entries are kept in a backup, autostart_backup.json, so they can be restored — the tool does not delete them for good.

CHECKSUM

Computes a file's checksum — MD5, SHA-1 or SHA-256. It is used to verify that a downloaded file is complete and identical to the publisher's.

1. BROWSE — pick the file. For large files the progress is visible; the computation can be stopped.
2. COMPUTE — the checksum appears in the RESULT field.
3. COMPARE WITH — paste the checksum the publisher gives. The program answers ✔ MATCH or ✘ MISMATCH, with no need to stare at a string of characters.

FOLDER SNAPSHOT

Answers the question “what changed in this folder”. It works in two steps: first SAVE SNAPSHOT records the state of the folder, and later COMPARE WITH SNAPSHOT shows three lists: ADDED, REMOVED and CHANGED.

The comparison takes the size, the date and the checksum of every file into account, so it also catches a file swapped for another of the same name and size. Reading a large folder takes time — the work can be stopped, and the program then says Cancelled.

Windows firewall

ADMIN PIN Three buttons and one Application field in which you point at an .exe file with BROWSE:

• BLOCK creates a firewall rule cutting the chosen program off the network — in both directions, outbound and inbound.
• UNBLOCK deletes that rule.
• RULES shows every firewall rule present in the system.

Rules created by the program are named starting with HPL_BLOCK_, so they are easy to recognise and to remove from the system side as well.

DISKPART

Opens the system tool diskpart — the Windows console manager of disks and partitions. The program only launches it; the work itself happens in the console window, following diskpart syntax.

Start with Windows

The Start with Windows box creates a shortcut in the current user's Startup folder, so the program comes up with the system. Clearing the box removes the shortcut. It is useful for shutting the computer down at a fixed hour every day — see chapter 14.

14. POWER tab

This tab plans one thing: what to do with the computer and when. You set two fields and click start.

Once START SHUTDOWN TIMER is pressed, the clock on the top bar begins counting down. The program announces the approaching action by voice three minutes and one minute ahead, and again as it happens — so it will not catch you mid-work. CANCEL SHUTDOWN calls the plan off and the clock returns to 00:00:00.

RESTART TO BIOS

ADMIN PIN Restarts the computer straight into the UEFI settings, without catching a key at boot. It works on UEFI machines — on older ones with a classic BIOS the system offers no such option.

15. Button summary

Every button of the program in one place. ADMIN marks a need for administrator rights, PIN — a PIN prompt.

SEARCH

NETWORK

TOOLS

POWER

16. Troubleshooting